Robert Rose Discusses Content Marketing World’s Cage Match

Robert Rose and Arnie Kuenn discuss the World Cage Match at the upcoming Content Marketing World 2012 in Columbus Ohio.

About Robert Rose:

As the Chief Stategist for the Content Marketing Institute and Founder and Chief Troublemaker at Big Blue Moose, Robert Rose innovates creative and technical content marketing strategies for his clients. An early Internet pioneer, Rose has more than 15 years of experience, and a track record of helping brands and businesses develop successful Web and content marketing strategies. Rose is a frequent keynote speaker, advising top professionals in the successful strategy of online marketing and Web site management. He’s a featured writer and guest blogger for the online magazine iMedia Connection and the co-author of the book Managing Content Marketing with Joe Pulizzi. Rose is, and has been, widely quoted in the press, including publications such as Wired, CBS Interactive, KMWorld, Direct Marketing News and BusinessWeek. Follow Robert on Twitter @Robert_Rose.

About Content Marketing World:

Content Marketing World is the largest gathering of content marketing professionals in the world. Content Marketing World is the one event where you can learn and network with the best and the brightest in the content marketing industry. You will leave with all the materials you need to take a content strategy back to your team – and – implement a content marketing plan that will grow your business and engage your audience. Content Marketing World 2012 takes place on September 4 – 6, 2012 at the Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio.

Transcription (edited):

Arnie: Hello this is Arnie Kuenn with Vertical Measures. We’re real happy to have as our guest, Robert Rose, with the Content Marketing Institute.

Robert: Hi, Arnie.

Arnie: Hey, Robert. How are you?

Robert: I’m doing great. Thank you, Arnie.

Arnie: Sorry to talk over you there. So, what we’re doing is we’re putting together this interview series with different keynote presenters for Content Marketing World that’s taking place in Columbus in September. Robert is handling the Content Marketing Technology Cage Match, which I know they did last year and so they’re bringing it back because it was a big success.

I’m just going to let him take a couple of minutes to tell you, what that’s all about. Take it away.

Robert: Well, thank you. We’ve got a couple of different talks that I’m doing here at Content Marketing World. The first, as you noted, is the Technology Cage Match. We did it last year and it got a lot of great feedback. We’re lucky at Content Marketing World to get some great sponsors that are there obviously to talk about their technology and their solutions and how it helps facilitate content marketing processes in the enterprise.

With those great sponsors, we need to make sure that we highlight them in a really creative way. One of the ways that we like to do that is give them 30 minutes during the lunch hour to actually talk about their solutions. But we didn’t want to just do it in a way that had technology vendors coming up and doing the standard PowerPoint or sales pitch, or that sort of thing.

True to the concept and the spirit of Content Marketing World, we wanted to make it a little more original storytelling and creative in nature. What Joe and I did was we came up with an idea, where we would turn it into some kind of creative thing. I’m not going to tease too much of it, because I’ve got a few surprises for the technology vendors that are coming this year, and also for the audience itself.

But we’ve got some really fun stuff planned with what we’re going to do to these technology vendors, and make them come up with very cool and creative ways of pitching and talking about their product, so that it’s a little more memorable.

Arnie: Great. So, what’s the other session that you’re going to be doing?

Robert: I’ve got another session happening on the second day of the conference. It’s really about changing – it’s called “Getting the Choir to Sing” and how we get internal people to actually start producing all this wonderful content that we’re going to be doing with our content marketing strategy.

In the latest survey that was done by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute [marketing managers] said that their biggest challenge these days was not in building the business case, not in getting budget, and not in proving to the executives that this was going to actually be worthwhile doing.

The biggest challenge these days is actually where are we going to get all this content? How are we actually going to execute this strategy over the long haul?

So, this talk, my talk on the second day, is really talking about how we get that choir to sing. What are the processes that we put into place? When to outsource, when to insource, and really how the marketing department is completely transforming.

One of the things that I’ve really noticed over the six months that I’ve been working with Content Marketing Institute on various consulting engagements, the workshops I’m teaching, and also certainly the people that I’m meeting at various events, is that the marketing department is really fundamentally transforming. The skill sets are different.

The types of people that we’re hiring are different. That means, that as people in these departments, our skill sets need to be changing. Our outlook on what’s going on needs to be changing. Otherwise, we’re going to get left behind.

One person I was talking to said, basically the thing that she was doing five years ago, there’s absolutely nothing that she was doing five years ago that she’s doing today. It’s completely transformed. So, my talk on the second day is really going to cover some of the strategies that we can put in place, both as employers and as employees to help facilitate some of that change.

Arnie: Well, excellent. I’m glad you brought it up. I’m glad I asked you about. We’re kind of known I guess as a, first probably, an SEO agency, even though we do tons of content marketing for clients. One of the struggles I know that we run into is even getting those groups, IT, SEO, everybody to be a part of your choir so that the messaging is the same. It’s optimized, so on and so forth. I imagine you see that as well.

Robert: We do. One of the things that I’m noticing more and more is how the marketing departments are fundamentally changing with the skill sets. So, there’s sort of two pieces to that, right? There are the employees who are saying, “Look, I’ve got so much to do already. My mind is already just jam-packed with stuff that I have to do on a day-to-day basis. How am I going to fit in writing blogs or getting Tweets out, or writing white papers or becoming a thought leader in the industry.

The point is that we really have to start to make time for that. Because as the marketing departments fundamentally transform, and as we become more storytelling-driven, and more creatively focused, it is going to be incumbent upon us to actually facilitate that change and make it fundamental. Because five years from now, we won’t be doing these same things either.

Arnie: That’s right.

Robert: So, we’ve got to just continually be, both again, as employers and employees, we’ve got to be embracing that change. What I like to say is, “Giving chaos a great big old hug.”

Arnie: That’s great. Yep. All righty. I know you and Joe recently came out with a book, so I’d thought I’d give you about 10 or 15 seconds if you’d like to tell the world about it.

Robert: Thank you, Arnie. I appreciate it.

Now, this fine piece of product can be yours very, very simply, also a digital version available at Amazon.com. Thank you very much for bringing that up. “Managing Content Marketing“, Joe and I like to think is really the owner’s manual of content marketing.

More than sort of winding people up and getting people excited about content marketing, we’re assuming that’s already sort of out there. This book is really about how to. How to start putting it into practice in your organization from building the business case, all the way through determining how to put together a measurement strategy to make it effective.

Arnie: Yeah. Super. Super. All righty. Well, that’s all the time we have. I want to thank Robert for joining us. I hope to see all of you at Content Marketing World in Columbus. It’s right after Labor Day in September. I was there last year, and I promise you, if you’re into content marketing, it’s the event you don’t want to miss. Thanks for all of your time.